Aryan invasion debate

[C.R. (Selva) Selvakumar]

Bharat Gupt wrote:

> C.R. Selvakumar wrote:
>
> >      Tamil music, a branch of which today is called Carnatic
> >      music,  is more than 2000 years old but in the last 50-60
> years,
> >      there is undoubtedly a tendency to sing mostly the 'Trinity's
> >      krithis and there are also a large number of brAhmana
> exponents.
> >      The art of Carnatic music is in no small measure advanced by
> >      great Naagasuram players none of whom is a brAhmana (except may
> be one
> >      or two who are not exponents anyway).
> >      In short what you are claiming is a gross distortion.
>
> The Aryan-Dravidian debate need uphold the lower caste of Nagasuram
> players as
> a repository of Tamil originality of Caranatic music.
>
> Music, by the way, is not the literary content of vocal compositions,
> whether it be the
> kritis of South or bandish or prabandhas of North. Music of every
> region also is a
> grammatical system. All Indian musical scales "melas" of South and
> "thaats" of North are
> classifications made after the Turkish invasion  and a strong
> conditioning by  the
> Arabic/Iranian  maqam system (derived from the "harmonai" of Greeks)
> of twelve notes is
> not ruled out.

          I did not just mean the language used in the songs ('kritis'),
be assured of this.          Although almost all native populations have
inspiring  music and          dance of some form or other , the
understanding of music, in a
          technical sense, and developing musical scales and systems
          is  totally  a different thing. It is my understanding,
          which I am willing to correct if substantive evidence is
shown,
          that Tamils developed such scales and systems of high order
          before 'Arya' or for that matter any other people of the
world.
          Cilappathikaaram and still earlier works like tolkAkkiyam, the

          puRanAnURu talk about these and the commentaries talk about
          purely musicology books in Tamil.  It does not make any sense
to
          claim that it happened after Turkish incursion etc. !

> The ancient Indian system of Graama-murcchanaa classification
> (followed in toto by
> Chilapadikaram) prevailed in the North and the South as well till 13th
> century
> approximately.

          I would appreciate it  if you can show the evidence from
cilappatikaaram and          your Sanskrit sources for the
Graama-murcchanaa classification.
          It is a fact that the concept of paN is known in Tamil
          from at least as early as 300-500 B.C.E and
          more than 9200 songs with paN are sung in the tEvAram and
          thiruvAcakam (they are available even today)
          since at least from 1000 C.E (though they were sung,
          not recited, since 600-700 C.E at least). There were also
earlier exponents.
         There is a live tradition of OtuvAr spanning more than 800
years.
         What I mentioned here is only   a subset of the musical
traditions in Tamil.
         There had been a continuous musical tradition spanning more
than 2300 years
         as evident from the Tamil literature until the
         emergence of fascisitic 'subha culture' of Chennai.

         Now can you please show me 100 songs  sung with Raaga in
Sanskrit ?
         Say that is as old as tEvAram (600- 700 C.E).
          Are there lullabies in Sanskrit ?  Or are there in Sanskrit
what are known
          as Oppari's (dirge) ?
          As I understand the word Raaga itself occurs first only in
Matanga's Brhaddesi
          (of 8th century C.E. ) which is again supposed to be about
folk music (desi raagas).
          Compare this with paN in Tamil.
          Sanksrit works including the Natyasastra are heavily based on
Tamil systems.
          Tamils are the originators of the 7-note system known today as
sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, da, ni.
          The Arya system had only 5 or 6 notes and not 7 until they
adopted Tamil system.
          Even the sanskrit word Shandjam for the first note shows that
it is born out of
          6 (notes).

>Even the ancient Indian system shows deep parallels with the Greek
system.

> Originality and separate identity,  Tamil or  Northen Aryan is not so
> easy to locate.

       May not be easy, but it is there. See above. Tamil musical system
is independent and       ancient. Tamils from from very ancient times
considered their 'culture'
       in terms of the triad  'iyal-icai-kUtttu'
(literature-music-dance)  and  they are proud of their
       numerous art forms and crafts. The sad thing is it is being put
down or sidelined
       or marginalized or portayed to be a less important subset of the
Aryan
       'fold'. But I believe time will tell the merits, calibre and
contributions of Tamils.

       C.R. Selvakumar

> Bharat Gupt
> Associate Prof. Delhi Univ.